


Underneath

by lesbianettes



Series: 911 Lone Star Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, F/F, Gen, Panic, Rescue Mission, Trapped, call gone wrong, implied marchelle, no happy ending, suffocation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:22:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23864464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianettes/pseuds/lesbianettes
Summary: Marjan gets trapped during the rescue of Bennett (1.09)Fill for 911 Lone Star Bad Things Happen Bingo: Trapped + Call Gone Wrong
Relationships: Michelle Blake/Marjan Marwani
Series: 911 Lone Star Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1719811
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Part Two May 6

It was supposed to be fine.

Marjan just had to help free the adventurous father from the cave, and then something collapsed, the rope went slack, and she realized she might not have a lot of air down here. Sure, it’s been frightening since she first began her descent into the cave, ears popping painfully at the pressure, but she didn’t realize it would end up like this.

“Marwani, come in,” Her radio crackles, Judd’s voice sounding just a little too panicked. “Our rope got real tight all of a sudden. What happened?”

She looks above her, where the turn of the tunnel is completely blocked off. She can’t reach it without climbing upward again, and doing that could set everything off again because she doesn’t have any equipment for this. Trying to dig her way out is far too risky. The reckless spelunker asks her what happened, his voice quiet and breathy. He won’t last much longer, and she doesn’t know if she’ll make it too long either. Already the air has started to turn stuffy.

“There was a cave-in, over.”

For a moment, her radio is quiet. Then, Judd says, “Where and how bad?”

“It’s a few feet above me and toward the opening of the tunnel. I can’t reach it without climbing back up, and it’s really unstable. I don’t think I can dig my way out without risking a secondary collapse. Over.”

Saying the over isn’t important right now, or at least it doesn’t feel like it. Judd certainly doesn’t care anymore. But if she does it, then she can pretend this isn’t an emergency, and she’ll be fine. They’ll be able to rescue her, and before she knows it, she’ll be back above ground where it’s safe. Bennett, the father trapped beside her, has stopped moving, and doesn’t respond when she calls his name.

“How’s the air flow? Do you think you can stay there while we wait for another crew? Mateo’s the only one who can fit down there.”

She looks up at the ceiling. The air down here doesn’t feel like it’s moving anymore, and she isn’t sure if she’s imagining it.

“I don’t think there’s any air flow where I am. Bennett is unresponsive, and his upper body is in a different pocket than mine. I think I have… maybe an hour of air, if I’m careful. Over.”

Bennett’s leg twitches. 

“I’m sending help down now, okay? We’re gonna get you out of here. Getting a hole in there big enough to free you might take a while, so I’ll send down an oxygen tank too. Should give you a little more time. Hang in there, Marj. We’re coming.”

-

Michelle is trained for a lot of things, but this isn’t one of them. She’s a paramedic. She is absolutely not a firefighter. But between everyone on sight, Mateo, Nancy, and herself are the only ones who can fit down there, and they need all the hands they can get. Nancy gets a harness for Marjan to bring her back up if need be, she carries an oxygen tank and their rope lead, and Mateo holds onto a shovel and the jaws of life. Without the room or accessibility for the motor, it’ll take all three of them to pry the rock open.

She’s willing to do whatever it takes to get Marjan out of there, safe and sound, especially given the way Judd told them upon arrival how many people get trapped down here and are never rescued. They have to have hope, or else the whole job becomes that much harder. Mateo turns his radio on and tells her that no matter what, all their radios need to be ready to speak. Just in case. 

“Be safe,” Judd yells after them as they make their way past the mouth of the cave. 

The anchor points left behind from trying to rescue Bennett before the collapse help direct them. As they walk, no one speaks. The situation is far too tense, and Marjan needs to conserve the air she has left wherever she’s trapped. According to Mateo, it’ll take them around half an hour to reach her, maybe less if they’re quick.

Michelle is afraid to be quick. She doesn’t want to trigger another collapse, sealing them in or making another barrier before they can reach Marjan. She steps in the same place as Mateo in front of her each time, so she doesn’t kick a rock, and by the sound of it, Nancy does as well. Neither of them really feel safe in here, and they’re not as trained to push the fear down. They just have to push it down, the way Mateo is, even if his face seems damp with more than sweat as they make their way through the maze.

“I think Bennett is dead,” Marjan says on the radio. “I can’t get a pulse on any part of his lower body. And it’s official that there’s no air flow in here. It’s getting hard to breathe. Over.”

Judd responds by asking Mateo for their ETA.

“About ten minutes,” he says, touching his gloved hand to an anchor point on the old rope. “I don’t know how long it’ll take us to get through the collapse though.”

His response is followed by a crashing noise and an audible, if faint scream from further down the tunnel. All three of them freeze. Michelle grabs for her radio and clicks the speak button on. “Marjan, what happened? Over.”

“Secondary collapse. Some- some of the debris fell on me. I think it broke my leg. Over.”

“Okay, just take a deep breath. You’re breathing really fast, and you need to be careful with your air.”

Now she has to focus on first aid over the radio as she continues to make her way deeper into the cave, her ears popping in protest. 

“Is it a compound fracture? Is the bone coming out of the skin?”

“I don’t think so, over.”

“Can you move whatever fell on you?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Are you bleeding at all Marjan?”

They make it another few feet in silence. Thirty seconds tick by, and Michelle’s chest hurts at the sudden lack of communication. She needs to know if Marjan is okay. 

“You still there?”

“Sorry. Getting kinda dizzy.”

Mateo suddenly stops and holds up his hand. They’ve reached the collapse. The rocks are all tightly packed, and pulling the wrong one could be disastrous. Michelle’s heart is beating too fast, but she just presses her palm lightly against the rubble. 

“Can you hear us, honey?” she asks.

After a moment, she hears Marjan groan. She’s still alive. Nancy ties off their rope lead and harness, and pulls on the gloves Mateo hands her to protect her palms from the jagged rock. Michelle takes a pair too, and wait for his instruction on what to do.

“Chavez to Ryder,” he says before they touch anything. “We’re at the collapse now. Marjan is still alive, but she’s injured and running out of air. Any idea how much time we have left? Over.”

“She said an hour of air, you’ve been down about forty minutes. You have maybe twenty left to at least get her some more oxygen.”

At that, Mateo starts working. He says to lightly run their hands over the debris to find out what’s loose and structurally safe to remove, at first. Just thinning the rock out helps. Michelle’s hands are shaking pretty badly as she does it. At first, just little pebbles and shards come, but then they’re left with larger rocks lodged into the wall. This is where things will get dangerous. This wall could be holding up the tunnel. It could collapse backward and fall on Marjan, burying her delicate body beneath it. Already, there’s been one secondary collapse that’s hurt her badly enough. There’s no telling what another could do to her.

“Marjan,” Mateo calls, beginning to open the case holding the jaws of life. “We’re going to pry open the wall. If you can, I need you to move as far away from the collapse as possible and brace yourself. Do you have your helmet on?”

There’s no response.

“Marjan, I need you to put on your helmet and get back,” he repeats, a little louder, a little more frantic. “Marjan!”

Michelle clicks her radio on. “Captain Blake to Ryder. Marjan is no longer responding to us.” She takes a deep breath. “Continue with search and rescue, or retreat? Over.”

“Do you have any reason to believe she is dead as opposed to unconscious?”

“No way for us to tell right now, over.”

“You’re already there. Proceed with the rescue.”

She helps grab one of the levers on the jaws, Nancy helping her, while Mateo holds the other. As opposed to up and down, they have them set up sideways, which should allow them to clear out a small enough window to at least see how Marjan is doing, and get some air to her.

When they manage to open it up a bit and start digging out rocks, Mateo takes off his gloves. Michelle tells him not to, but he doesn’t even seem to hear her. It’s easier to get a grip on the smaller pieces like that, even if she watches cuts appear on his palms until there’s a small enough window to peer through. Marjan isn’t visible, but they can see the slight glow from further down, probably from her head lamp. They’ve found her.

“I’m small enough to get through that gap,” Michelle says. “Send me through and I’ll get the oxygen to her, bring her closer. Then we can go from both sides to try and get a bigger opening.”

“That’s a bad idea,” Nancy says.

Mateo shrugs, as though it’s up to her.

She pushes the oxygen tank through the gap first, and then clears away some larger fragments to make it easier to squeeze through. There’s a few ominous cracks, but she’s still able to do it. The thin polyester of her uniform is finally good for something. It takes almost a full minute to get through, and she’s left with scrapes all over her body, but finally, she’s on the other side. She picks up the tank and finds the area where the tunnel takes a sharp turn downward, and Marjan is visible at the bottom beside Bennett’s legs. She’s so very still, with smears of blood around her body and covered with rocks and dust. Carefully, Michelle climbs down to her, and presses her fingers to the side of her neck.

Her pulse is weak and slow, but it’s there.

“Captain Blake to Ryder and Chavez. Marjan has a pulse. There’s some blood loss, but I can’t evaluate her injuries here. Putting her on oxygen now. I’m going to climb back up to help open the wall and get the harness. Over.”

“Michelle, you did not go down there,” Judd says. 

She doesn’t answer him, instead fixing the oxygen mask over Marjan’s mouth and nose, opening the valve, and starting the climb back up to the collapse.

When she gets there, it seems Mateo and Nancy have made some progress. Not a lot, though. They hand the harness through and she goes back down to fix it around Marjan’s limp body. Anything to get her to safety. Michelle helps them tug the rope, slowly and carefully, to pull Marjan up from the dip in the tunnel without hitting her against the wall. It’s terrifying. Especially with the added weight of the oxygen tank wedged into the harness with her. When they’re almost up, Marjan’s eyes open and she weakly struggles.

“Relax, we’ve got you,” Michelle says. “We’re pulling you up. Just stay still, okay?”

Marjan mumbles behind the mask and obeys, allowing them to finish getting her back to level with the collapse so they can keep working, knowing that she’s safe for now. Michelle starts pulling away large rocks above the jaws of life, ignoring when it causes some to fall on her gloved hands. She doesn’t have to be so careful anymore, and she doesn’t want to be either. She just wants to get Marjan back up to the surface. 

“Careful,” Mateo says, and removes the jaws to put away. There’s a moment where they just wait to see if disaster will strike. Thankfully, it seems alright, and Michelle helps him and Mateo make a larger hole so they can climb to safety. "We'll have to carry her up ourselves," he adds as they work. "The rope we have is just a lead now, since the other one is caught, plus all the twists and turns. We'll have to carry her."

"Whatever it takes."

In just a few more minutes, they have a large enough hole to safely pull Marjan through, and Michelle follows soon after. Mateo radios the progress back to Judd. Nancy looks rather pale, arms crossed over her chest as she stares at what’s left of the site of the collapse. Michelle gets the discomfort. Her head is starting to hurt and she’s getting a little lightheaded, and she’s got the distraction of someone she cares about more than she’d like to admit in her arms to bring to safety. Mateo is a full on firefighter. 

“Go back up,” Michelle says to her softly. “We’ll be right behind you.”

Nancy nods and takes off with the equipment, following their lead, but leaving it in place for Michelle and Mateo to follow to the surface. Everything is going to be okay. Between the two of them, they lift Marjan carefully and carry her slowly along the path back. There’s so many twists and turns, narrow openings, jagged rocks that catch their clothes and skin. Michelle tries not to notice the blood on Mateo’s hands from scraping up on the rocks, now smearing on the reflectors of Marjan’s coat. 

They’re so close to the surface Michelle can almost taste it. She can see the gleam of the light reaching out toward them. Nancy and Tim are at the ready. They’re almost out, when the cave around them gives an ominous creak, a crack, a rattle, and the light is gone.


	2. Chapter 2

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“Grace? Grace, thank God. We uh, we need another crew to our location right away.”

Grace isn’t used to getting a phone call from a paramedic instead of a radio, but she can handle this nonetheless. Nancy sounds absolutely panicked. She’s close to hyperventilating, and the chaos in the background of the call has her terrified of what they could be looking at. She can’t lose Judd. She’s already nearly lost him once, and she can’t be on the call when it happens again.

“On it now. Talk to me, Nancy, what’s going on?”

Nancy makes a sob-like sound. “Marjan got trapped in the tunnel, and we went to get her. I came back up ahead, and then- Michelle and Mateo and Marjan, they’re stuck. There was another collapse. They were almost here. We need help to get them out.”

-

“Chavez, Blake. Talk to me,” Judd barks into the radio. “I can see the collapse from here. Are you hurt?”

Michelle replies immediately. “I’m not hurt, and Marjan has no further injuries. She’s coming back around with the help of the oxygen. Mateo was a bit further ahead of me, and he got caught in some of it. He’s conscious, but disoriented and bleeding. His arm is pinned under some debris. We have airflow from deeper in the cave. It’s not ideal, but we have enough oxygen that we can last for a low-risk rescue.”

Judd will not lose another crew. He glances over to where the paramedics are on the line with dispatch again, and nods before adjusting his helmet and signaling to Paul that they have to get started. He switches his radio frequency to dispatch and hears Grace’s voice right away, something which is always helpful in calming him down. She’s good like that. She informs him that another crew has a ten minute ETA, and they’re bringing full extraction equipment for a collapse. Mentally, he hates himself for not thinking of bringing it in the first place. He should have known. Then, maybe he’d be better equipped to save his family.

“Alright, here’s what we’re gonna do,” he says to Paul. “Keep your radio on their frequency. Ask if Michelle can get the stuff off of Mateo.”

Paul relays the question and receives a negative. But apparently Marjan is getting closer to coherent, and Michelle has discovered a gash on the back of Mateo’s head. They need to move quickly, but safely. At least they can breathe in there, Judd tells himself, and focuses on keeping his head straight. Owen would probably be better at this, but he’s with TK, all laid up in the hospital. Another member of his crew that Judd could lose because he wasn’t able to save him.

The other crew arrives shortly and look to Judd for instructions, even though their captain is there and he’s not one at all. It’s his operation. He takes a deep breath and approaches the collapse near the mouth. It’s a few feet in, and he knows that his crew were around ten feet away before it went down, injuring Mateo. So they have a thick layer of rock to content with, but it’s close enough to the opening that he thinks they’re going to be able to handle it. Hopefully. They need to be able to handle it.

“We’re going to do it by hand,” Judd orders. “It’s a thick wall, but this is the fourth cave-in in the last hour and a half. I’ve got two firefighters and a paramedic captain in there, and we’ve already lost a man. No power tools. I want everyone to put on gloves, masks and goggles. Depending on how it goes, we might switch to shovels later on.”

He follows his own safety gear instructions and they all get to work, taking the rocks apart piece by piece, hauling it away so they can keep going. It’s hard work, but it doesn’t feel like they’re making much progress. Judd would rather be safe than fast, though, so he’s fine with it, until Michelle is calling for them.

“Captain Blake to Ryder.”

Paul hands him the radio. 

“I’m here.”

“Mateo’s in a lot of pain, and I can’t get a pulse in his wrist. The debris is cutting off circulation. I need you in here soon, or he’s going to lose his arm. Over.”

It takes everything Judd has to just curse and not scream or cry. He wishes he wasn’t the one to make this call. He wishes this didn’t happen. He wishes he could be home and safe with the knowledge that his team are all the same. If Owen was here, he would know what to do. 

“Okay. Mateo, do you want us to rush to get you and risk further collapse, or do you want us to stay slow and risk your arm?”

“He says to hurry, over.”

At least it was Mateo’s choice, Judd thinks, and takes a deep breath. He has the other crew go get their jackhammer, and wills himself to stay calm. Everything will be fine if he stays calm, even watching someone he’s never met put a power tool to the fragile tunnel and start cutting through it all. In an instant, everything could be over, and his family could die in there. He doesn’t want to believe that.

After a few long minutes, they have a large enough hole to get other tools to pry it open. A crowbar, the jaws of life, anything to widen the little window into something that lets them rescue Michelle and Marjan, and get the debris off Mateo. All three of them are caked in dust and dirt, but they’re alive. They’re all alive. Marjan is out first, passed into the capable hands of the paramedics and loaded up into the ambulance. Michelle is right after her, and joins them so the 126’s paramedics can go to the hospital, while the other crew’s paramedics wait for Mateo. Judd shoulders his way to the front of the group and gets into the stupid fucking cave. He picks up the large rock resting on Mateo’s forearm and braces himself for the weight. It’s heavy as hell. But he manages to lift it long enough for Mateo to get away and sit up, pulling his injured arm to his chest and looking to the light with wide, stunned eyes. It’s as though he can’t believe that he’s free. 

“You’re gonna be okay, brother.”

He’s the one who picks Mateo up and carries him out of the tunnel, back into the sunlight and the rest of the world. He’s bruised, battered, bloody, but alive and able to gripe about being carried before Judd sets him carefully on the gurney and thanks the other crew for their help. Now it’s just himself and Paul, looking at their firetruck that’s just too big for the two of them.

“126 to dispatch, take us off call. We’re down to two men.”

They drive the truck back to the station in silence, and then take Judd’s car to the hospital to check on their team. Marjan, Mateo, and TK, all hurt so badly in such rapid succession. It’s almost like the universe is punishing them. 

It’s like the universe is punishing Judd for not being able to save his old team by putting him through this pain over and over. He’s being selfish, he thinks, and yet, he can’t shake his own pain and struggle at knowing his crew is hurt.

Grace meets them there, and she takes the task of telling Owen what happened, leaving Judd and Paul to check up on Marjan. The doctors say Mateo is still in surgery, trying to save his arm from the lack of circulation. At the very least, he reminds himself, they’ll both survive, and that’s better than nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr @cupidmarwani


End file.
